Animated talking doll



Dec. 27, 1966 J. w. RYAN 3,293,794

ANIMATED TALKING DOLL Original Filed May 28, 1962 Hi0, a 4 g day/v W Bymv I N VENTOR.

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United States Patent 3,293,794 ANIMATED TALKING DOLL John W. Ryan, Bel Air, Calif., assignor to Mattel, Inc., Hawthorne, Calif., a corporation of California Continuation of application Ser. No. 198,084, May 28, 1962. This application May 28, 1965, Ser. No. 472,380 4 Claims. (Cl. 46-118) This application is a continuation of applicants copending application Serial No. 198,084,'filed May 28, 1962, now abandoned.

This invention relates to talking dolls and the like and especially to such dolls or other figures having eyes and lips that are movable during the speech or talking actuation thereof.

Talking dolls are known, however, such dolls are heretofore developed incorporate a speech mechanism wherein the talk or speech is stereo-typed and is often coordinated with animated features such as moving eyes or lips. These movements are recurrent at regular intervals and do not give a realistic impression of normal doll talk or speech.

The sounds of speech of the doll of this invention may be created in various ways. However, in this invention such sounds or speech is incorporated in a phonograph contained within the body of the doll, one form of which is shown in .applicants application, Serial No. 83,965, filed February 10, 1961, now Patent 3,082,006, which was copending with said application No. 198,084, now abandoned, which was a continuation-in-part of application Serial No. 11,023, filed February 25, 1960 and now Patent No. 3,017,187.

The device involves a construction and arrangement of parts making it extremely compact, rugged, durable and effective. Means are provided whereby in response to a simple manipulation, such as for example the pulling of a drawstring, the needle of the tone arm of the phonograph is placed at the starting point of the record and moves relatively to the reproducing cone or disc which is stationary for producing the novel tone effects and at the same time initiating the eye and lip movements.

In accordance with the foregoing, the primary object of the invention is to provide a novel animated talkingdoll wherein lip and eye movements are coordinated or coactuated with a phonograph means for reproducing speech.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide an improved talking doll having movable lips and eyes that are moved in accordance with a talk or speech originating in a phonograph incorporated in the doll body.

Another object of the invention is to provide a doll as in the previous objects wherein the animated features and talk or speech reproduction are produced by simple manual actuation.

A further object of the invention is to provide a novel talking doll construction having a movable lip formation coordinated with speech reproducing means together with means for blinking the eyes during the talk or speech rendition.

More specific objects and advantages of the invention will become apparent from the following detailed description and annexed drawings, wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a side view in sectional elevation of the head and upper body portion of a doll embodying the invention.

FIGURE 2 is a sectional view taken along line 22 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 3 is a sectional view taken at line 33 of FIGURE 1.

FIGURE 4 is a partial view of the actuating mechanism for blinking the eyes and moving the lips.

3,293,794 Patented Dec. 27, 1966 FIGURE 5 is a View similar to FIGURE 4 showing the mechanism in an actuated position.

Referring more particularly to the drawing, and especially to FIGURE 1, there is there shown the head 10 and upper portion 11 of the body of a doll, body portion 11 being hollow and preferably formed of a pliable thermo plastic material. A neck 12 is formed at the upper part of the body and has a circular opening 13, and a flange 14 surrounds the opening. Head 10 is preferably made of similar material and is hollow and is formed with a pair of eye openings 16 and a mouth opening 17, there being eye socket formations 18 interiorly of eye openings 16, in which eyeballs 20 are positioned. A lever 21 forms a lip member and has a lip 22 extending through lip opening 17.

A gear housing23 has a base flange 24 for seating on flange 14 of the neck 12 of the body 11. A boss 25 secured to the underside of flange 24 overhangs flange 14 and serves to center the gear housing over the neck opening 13. Gear housing 23 which may be of any suitable construction, however, is shown as comprising a pair of complementary sections of thermoplastic material having side walls 26, to each of which upper-forward portion is secured a semi-circular anchor flange 27 which is positioned within one of the eye sockets 18. The housing sections 23 are formed with a pair of confronting wings 28 extending angularly and outwardly from the top thereof and a clamp, bolt or screw 29 is run through the wings 28 and serves to hold the two parts of the housing together.

A somewhat U-shaped bracket 30 is secured to and extends forwardly from housing 23 at the bottom thereof and has an upstanding tongue 31 which extends through a slot in lip member 21 in such manner that member 21 may be pivoted on the tongue, as from the position shown in FIGURES 1 and 4 to that of FIGURE 5. Eyes 20 are substantially semi-circular in shape and are hollow and each eye carries a trunnion 33, the ends of which are positioned in bearings 34 formed in the sidewalls of eye sockets 18. This construction permits the eyes to turn or swing to effect the blinking movement comprising an important feature of the invention. Suitable weights 35 are secured in the lower portions of the eyes 20 and a rock-arm 36 extends rearwardly and upwardly from each weight 35. A tie rod 37 extending between and secured to the upper ends of arms 36 provides simultaneous movement of the two eyes 20.

A cam gear 38 is carried by a shaft 39 having bearings 40 mounted on the innersides of sidewalls 26 of the housing 23. A circular cam member 41 is secured on one side of cam gear 38 and is formed with a plurality of lobes 42. A pin 43 extends axially from the other side of cam gear 38 and is engageable with a somewhat triangular shaped lever 44 which is suitably pivoted at 45 within the housing. An upper arcuate edge of lever 44 is normally positioned under tie rod 37 and functions to swing the tie rod and levers 36 in a manner to tilt eyes 20 in a blinking movement.

Housing 26 suitably supports a pair of bearings 46 for carrying a shaft on which a pair of pulleys 47 and 48 are mounted, the shaft also carrying a drive gear 49, the construction being such that the pulleys and gear are integrally secured together for simultaneous rotation. A pair of cords 50 and 51 are respectively run on pulleys 47 and 48, cord 50 being connected to the driving spring of a phonograph generally indicated at 52 and suitably mounted within the body 11 of the doll. Cord 51 extends through a grommet 53 in the neck 12 of the doll body and the end of the cord is secured to a pull ring 54. Lip member 21 has a rearward extension 21a which is engageable with cam lobes 42 in such manner that, upon rotation of gear 38 and cam member 41, the lip lever will be rocked from the position shown in FIGURES 1 and 4 to that shown in FIGURE 5 and lip 22 will move in a manner simulating normal lip movement for talking.

. FIGURES 1 to 4 show the position of the parts in the normal or at rest position. In order to actuate the doll, pull ring 54 and cord 51 are pulled as a result of which the pulleys and gear 49 will be clockwise, which action will wind cord 50 on pulley 47 and wind the spring of phonograph 52. During the movement gear 38 and cam 41 will be turned counterclockwise and cam lobes 42 will ratchet past the end 21a of lip member 21. Upon release of cord 51 the phonograph spring will pull cord 50 and turn the pulleys in a counterclockwise direction and gear 38 and cam member 41 will be turned in clockwise direction. During this movement cam lobes 42 will successively move lip lever 21 from the position shown in FIGURE 4 to that shown in FIGURE 5, thus moving lip 22 up and down.

It will be observed that the spacing of cam lobes 42 is irregular and not uniform and can be so spaced that the several movements of the lip 22 during each actuation will closely simulate that of normal speech. During the movement just mentioned, after release of cord 51 and the first quarter turn in a clockwise direction of cam member 41, pin 43 will be swung to rock lever 44 and thus raise tie rod 37 and rock eye rock arms 36 and swing the eyes 20 in a blinking movement. During the unwinding movement of the phonograph spring the phonograph will be actuated to give an audible rendition of the speech which has been recorded on the record thereof such as, Im Chatty Cathy, the talking doll.

The foregoing disclosure is representative of a preferred form of the invention and is to be interpreted in an illustrative rather than a limiting sense, the invention to be accorded the full scope of the claims appended hereto.

What is' claimed is:

1. In a toy figure including a head simulating the head of a living being and sound emitting means, having a moving element, for simulating sounds emitted by said being, the combination comprising:

a lip member mounted in said head for simulating a portion of the mouth of said being;

lip actuating means connected to said lip member for imparting movement thereto to simulate talking movement of said lip; and

connecting means connecting said lip actuating means to said moving element of said sound emitting means for imparting movement to said lip member in synchronism with sound emitting operations of said sound emitting means, said connecting means including asymmetrically shaped cam means for driving said lip actuating means through an irregular cycle, and drive means for moving said moving element at a uniform rate.

2. The combination of claim 1 including blinking eyes provided in said head and eye actuating means connected to said eyes and responsive to said asymmetrically shaped cam to blink said eyes.

3. In a doll having a hollow body and a head having a movable lip and movable eyes and a speech sound-producing device in said body, coordinated means for actuating said sound-producing device, blinking said eyes and moving said lip in imitation of speech from said soundproducing device, said means including a lip-actuating lever connected to said lip, an eye-rocking lever connected to said eyes, a rotary member having a plurality of irregularly spaced cam means thereon for engaging and actuating said lip lever, further means on said rotary member arranged to separately actuate said eye lever, pulley means including a first pulley, a cord having one end portion wound on said first pulley and the other end of said cord extending to the exterior of said doll for manual manipulation, a second pulley coaxially fixedly secured to and rotatable with said first pulley and a second cord having one end portion wound on the second pulley and the other end of said second cord connected to said sound-producing device for energization thereof, and means drivingly connecting said first pulley to said rotary member.

4. A doll as defined in claim 3 wherein said rotary member and pulleys are positioned within said head adjacent said eyes and lip, said sound producing device being within said hollow body remote from said head.

References Cited by the Examiner UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,805,231 5/1931 Blaustein 46--l 18 2,641,866 6/1953 Schiller 46-118 X 2,670,568 3/1954 Walss 46--1l8 2,979,859 4/1961 Lossev 46135 FOREIGN PATENTS 492,633 2/ 1930 Germany. 699,463 11/ 1953 Great Britain.

RICHARD C. PINKHAM, Primary Examiner.

LOUIS J. BOVASSO, Examiner. 

1. IN A TOY FIGURE INCLUDING A HEAD SIMULATING THE HEAD OF A LIVING BEING AND SOUND EMITTING MEANS HAVING A MOVING ELEMENT, FOR SIMULATING SOUNDS EMITTED BY SAID BEING, THE COMBINATION COMPRISING: A LIP MEMBER MOUNTED IN SAID HEAD FOR SIMULATING A PORTION OF THE MOUTH OF SAID BEING; LIP ACTUATING MEANS CONNECTED TO SAID LIP MEMBER FOR IMPARTING MOVEMENT THERETO TO SIMULATE TALKING MOVEMENT OF SAID LIP; AND CONNECTING MEANS CONNECTING SAID LIP ACTUATING MEANS TO SAID MOVING ELEMENT OF SAID SOUND EMITTING MEANS FOR IMPARTING MOVEMENT TO SAID LIP MEMBER IN SYNCHRONISM WITH SOUND EMITTING OPERATIONS OF SAID 